I came across his profile on OkCupid and immediately fell for his smile. When I messaged him, I told him the secret to making vegetables taste good was in the sauce. We chatted for a week before we decided to meet. We met at a bakery that was halfway between us called Belle's Bread. I was nervous. He was nervous. I remember it was slightly warmer than usual, so I didn't wear a winter coat. We each got a coffee and sat in a booth and just talked, and talked, and talked. I never laughed so hard. I didn't even realize the time until I glance at my phone and saw five hours had passed. I had a ton of messages worried something happened. I didn't want the date to end. He was afraid I wouldn't reach back out. But we went on another date, and then another, and another, and then another.

I had decided I wanted to marry Matt in the summer of 2019. It clicked one day when I realized I'd never been so happy before. We'd talked on and off about marriage, but I didn't know when Matt planned on asking. Instead of waiting, I thought -- why don't I ask him? I planned it out. In the fall I started working on a gift for our anniversary. An illustrated book of our relationship. I spent months working on it. As our anniversary grew closer, I scheduled appointments to get dolled up, to go to a restaurant, to make a memorable night of it. By mid-March the world grinded to a halt as COVID-19 devastated the world. I had to cancel all my appointments. We couldn't go to dinner. I worried that the proposal couldn't happen. We made the best of the situation, though. We dressed up. Ordered a nice dinner in. Lit some candles, played some music. After dinner, I gave Matt his gift. He was too emotional to read it, so we sat together and I read him the story of our love. At the end, I got down on one knee and asked him to marry me. Spoiler, he said yes.